GA, Airlines Unite Against Aviation Fee Proposals

User Fees

General aviation and airline trade groups are banding together to fight the Obama Administration’s plan to raise fees on airline passengers and business aircraft operators as part of the White House’s sweeping reforms to cut the country’s ballooning debt.

The Air Transport Association says security is a national-defense function and that their members already pay an unfair share. The administration argues that those who use the air travel system should pay for it.

The aviation fees are part of Obama’s deficit-cutting plan released earlier this month. The proposal would raise the passenger security fee from $5 to $10 per round trip to $15 by 2017 and give the Homeland Security Department the power to push it higher. The White House also wants to impose a $100-per-flight fee on flights by turbine-powered business airplanes.

GA groups have blasted the $100 user-fee plan, saying it will introduce a new layer of bureaucracy. They back an increase in the jet fuel tax instead. A petition on the official whitehouse.gov website calling for the Obama Administration to “Take user fees off the table” has garnered the 5,000 signatures needed to ensure a White House response.